Virginia Senator Creigh Deeds Stabbed in Home

Virginia state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, the Democrats' gubernatorial nominee four years ago, was stabbed Tuesday in his head and chest at his home, and his son died at the residence from a gunshot wound, police said.

Creigh Deeds (Win McNamee, Getty Images)

Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller wouldn't say who stabbed Deeds or how his son was shot, but she did say authorities were not looking for any suspects. The senator, who also ran for attorney general in 2005, was in critical condition at a hospital.

Authorities received a 911 call Tuesday morning and responded to the senator's home in Millboro in rural Bath County, which is in western Virginia on the border with West Virginia, police said. They found the 55-year-old senator there with multiple stab wounds. Deeds' 24-year-old son, Gus, was also discovered at the home, suffering from a gunshot wound.

Geller said they were still trying to figure out motive and the sequence of events.

"It's a very complex investigation," Geller said. She said police have been able to talk with the senator, but she wouldn't reveal what he said. She also did not say who made the 911 call.

Deeds, a former Bath County prosecutor, was elected to the House of Delegates in 1991 and to the state Senate in 2001. He ran for attorney general in 2005, but lost to current Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican. The margin of victory was fewer than 400 votes out of nearly 2 million cast.

Deeds and McDonnell squared off again in 2009 in the race for governor after Deeds defeated Terry McAuliffe and Brian Moran in the Democratic primary, but Deeds lost badly that time.

Gus Deeds is one of the senator's four adult children. He had been enrolled at the College of William and Mary off and on since 2007, and withdrew last month, school spokesman Brian Whitson said. The college did not say why he left.

During Deeds' bid for governor, his son took off a semester to join his dad on the campaign trail.

"He needs me and I need him," Deeds told a reporter in the fall of 2009, about campaigning with Gus.

"I've got to go through this campaign process but that doesn't mean I've got to be completely separated from my family the whole time," he said.

Del. David Toscano, D-Charlottesville, whose district overlaps with Deeds', said in a statement that "Sen. Deeds was very close to his son, Gus, and has taken herculean efforts to help him over the years. Our thoughts and prayers are with Creigh and the family at this difficult time."

McDonnell said in a statement the news was "utterly heartbreaking."

"Creigh Deeds is an exceptional and committed public servant who has always done what he believes is best for Virginia and who gives his all to public service," McDonnell said.

McAuliffe, now governor-elect, called it a sad day for Virginia.

"We join people across the Commonwealth and country in wishing him a full recovery," he said.

Deeds and his ex-wife, Pam, divorced shortly after the 2009 campaign. Deeds remarried last year.

Deeds' reputation among colleagues has been as a thoughtful legislator. On social issues, he is generally to the right of party liberals, supporting abortion rights, but opposing gay marriage and gun control measures. He wrote a constitutional amendment guaranteeing Virginians' right to hunt and fish.

He proved to be a reserved campaigner in 2009, described as shy by his fellow lawmakers.

"I don't like fundraising. I don't like being away from home all the time," he said during the campaign. "I enjoy the service. I enjoy the work that politics allows you to do. I don't know that I really enjoy the process that much."

Deeds spent most of his childhood in Bath County, where his family settled in the 1740s. The rural county is known for the high-end Homestead resort, but Deeds grew up on the other side of the mountain.

"I didn't grow up on the end of the county where you learn to ski and play golf as a child," he said. Deeds lived on a farm after his parents divorced when he was about 7.

His grandfather was the Democratic Party chairman in Bath County during the Great Depression.